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DreamWorks Animation CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg is the leading cheerleader for 3D — and lobbied theaters hard to raise ticket prices for 3D films. So it’s funny to hear him say that “the bloom is off the rose” for the technology for a while “driven by a singular and unique characteristic that only exists in Hollywood, greed.” But he isn’t talking about ticket prices: He told Fortune magazine’s Brainstorm Tech Conference yesterday in Aspen that too many filmmakers “thought they could just deliver a kind of low-end crappy version of it, and people wouldn’t care, or wouldn’t know the difference. And nothing could have been further from the truth.” He says that over last seven or eight months Hollywood has put out “the worst lineup of movies you’ve experienced in the last five years of your life.” But he says that interest in 3D will grow as top directors use the technology. “It will take us a while, but we’ll earn (public interest) back,” he says.
BTIG analyst Rich Greenfield says the comments “made us even more concerned about the health of the movie industry” — including DreamWorks Animation. Here’s the video of Katzenberg’s interview:
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Mr Katzenberg is right. There are a lot of very two dimensional 3D movies out there!
Dead on! Katzenberg is absolutely right. Almost all the 3D movies of late have been deplorable and makes people question whether it is worth $18. Heck, people have already questioned the value of a $12 dollar ticket which is why most movies that merely look terrible fail.
Or ya know the blame could be placed where it belongs…
Ow he has it right in that it is greed. He just places the blame in the wrong place. There has always been bad movies, always will be. What has killed 3D is not bad movies and bad 3d use, but the extremely high ticket prices. There is your greed.
Hey Buddy,
Did you see Transformers 3 or Harry Potter? They seem to be breaking A LOT of records this year. Maybe you should re-think your plainly idiotic statement about 3D being dead, k? Thanks!
Transformers sold less tickets and Harry Potter would have broken records if it was 1D. I myself saw HP in 2D and the theatre was full.
Katzenberg lecturing Hollywood about greed … Pot, meet kettle.
How the fuck is greed “unique” and “only exists in Hollywood”?
The guy’s an idiot.
And I like how he discusses greed w/ Fortune magazine from a luxury hotel in Aspen…
BTW, 3-D will die. It’s a trend and only good for an event film like Avatar.
When he said greed was unique and only exists in Hollywood, he was attempting to make a joke. He didn’t deliver it very well, but it was still pretty obviously a joke.
The fact that you didn’t get that, and called HIM an idiot, gives you official membership in the Deadline Commenters Club.
Katzenberg was the #1 point person selling 3D including his own product.
Now, he blames the industry for it’s woes while the public was duped for over a year into buying into the 3D crap universe. Hey, Jeffrey…are you working on a refund plan?
Who will you blame next, Jeffrey, for the failure to make Dreamworks Animation the giant you imagined or the acquisition target from other studios…weak ongoing product…weak financials…weak future, but that must be some one else’s fault, too.
Gee, I guess it is the fault of your ‘potential’ buyers that they don’t see the great deal Dreamworks Animation is…just like the 3D scam you fostered.
What’s next, Jeffrey…will you and Eisner now become best buddies and partners?
I couldn’t agree with you more….by pointing the finger first, Katzenberg is trying to avoid being accused of exactly what he is accusing everyone else. What a hypocrite…no wonder he’s running his company into the ground.
I’ve said it before and I’ll take any opportunity to say it again, Katzenberg lost the plot years ago viz. his failed attempt to take Britain’s brilliant Aaardman Animations to a place where they couldn’t and shouldn’t have gone. When that didn’t work he then seized on 3D as the new best thing. Now the chickens have come home to roost and Katzenberg, who is the problem, not the solution, is now desperately running defense. It’s not going to work and when 3D does crash and burn (which can’t come soon enough for me), he’ll turn round and tell us it was everyone else’s fault. Oh wait! He’s doing that now.
Well, greed exists everywhere, not just in hollywood, but it is arguable that 90% of the problems this country faces can be traced at some point to unbridled corporate greed and the effects is has on us as a society. Having said that, it seems a bit disingenuous of Mr.Katzenberg to accuse anybody of greed. I think he’s feeling the pains of he dismal performance of DreamWorks animation on a number of issues and its recent financial woes. What he is projecting in others is in part a reflection of himself. Hollywood is indeed at the risk of self-destroying out of greed, inbreeding clubiness, hubris, venality and loss of perspective. The record business pretty much self-destroyed out of all these things and stupidity. Yes, the digital “revolution” has changed the game and switched the profit model towards those who control platforms rather than those who control content and distribution, but still… There’s time to save the house. But common sense and that rarest of ingredients in Hollywood, some decency, would not hurt. Try to not lie about every single thing for 24 hours and maybe, maybe, something will change for the better.
Man, oh man… how rich is it that the Golden Retriever is deriding greed… I feel like I’m in a Woody Allen film and Jeffrey is standing behind me in a movie line.
Once again, if someone can prove to me that 3D adds anything narratively to a film as a visual language – and doesn’t just turn a film into a theme park attraction – then I can get behind Katzenberg’s enthusiasm and insistence on it.
Once again…go watch Avatar, take five minutes to think about it afterward, and stfu.
I watched Avatar in 2D. It was the same as in 3D. Visually arresting, but stock characters and a story that’s been told a zillion times before, most recently in Pocahontas.
I think he’s 100% on target with his comments. Why should I pay an extra $3-5 to watch 3-D crap? The overzealous producers trying to cash in on the fad ruined it. It won’t completely go away, but, as he said, it’ll be a while before Hollywood earns the trust back.
Did you not read the part where he lobbied for the inflated ticket price for 3D films?
HE’s right… frankly even the Harry Potter film didn’t need to be in 3D… Transformers was excellent in 3D but my god…the plot was TERRIBLE.
have a nice day..
mickey
I don’t see how he thinks they will be able to stop studios from releasing crappy 3D films. As long as the 3D market exists, there will be plenty of folks trying to exploit it. And hopefully all the crappy 3D stuff will help expedite the extinction this expensive, experience-detracting technology.
I admire his candor and could not agree more.
Here’s a suggestion, Jeffrey: when you release your next 3-D epic, make theatres charge the same price for 3-D as 2-D. No upcharge, especially on kids. We’ll see if the numbers improve.
I blame 3D’s demise on 3D. It’s as unnecessary to the storytelling process as smell-o-vision.
As long the 3D dimness problem exists, I don’t care who directed the movie, I will actively seek out the 2D version.
Everyone should take a closer look at REAL-D and how they are raping the exhibitors AND the studios. It’s a big sham.
Complain all you want about Katzenberg, but he was warning about this from the beginning of the current 3-D bubble……in a story on this very site if I’m not mistaken. He got the big picture then and is reiterating it now. The stink left by the LAST AIRBENDER and CLASH OF THE TITANS horrible conversions has led to the current woes.
Calling Clash Of The Titans a stink of a movie is putting it mildly. I saw it in 3D and it was a piece of shit. Then again, only three months or so was taken into the conversion process. I saw it being a fan of the original and nearly walked out of the theater. That is a bad thing when you want to walk out of the theater because of the lack of quality of a movie. There are some movies that with the post conversion process have been good but those are rare. There were only two movies post converted that I can say were worth seeing. Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part 2 and Alice In Wonderland. Other than those movies and Clash, I have avoided the post converted 3D movies. Either film the movie in 3D or leave it in 2D. Why in the world would someone want to watch Titanic in 3D? Just to see the ship hit the damn iceberg and sink? Big deal! I can see converting the Star Wars movies into 3D but Titanic is going way too far. You want to be dazzled and not bored by the effects in 3D.
“…driven by a singular and unique characteristic that only exists in Hollywood, greed.”
Greed only exists in Hollywood ?!
Skunk smells his own scent first.
This is the second time that Mr. K, has made this type of announcement to offset the fact that his own products hadn’t lived up to expectations. Firstly, he killed 2d animation at his company because he said (after the poor b.o. performance of his last few 2d films) that is was because no one wanted to see hand drawn animation anymore. This is most likely NOT the case, but the Industry listened to him and stopped making 2d movies. Reality was that those last few 2d films he put out were not very good – full stop. Now, after claiming that 3d stereoscopic is the wave of the future, he’s putting the blame on everyone else now that audiences are rebelling against the higher ticket prices. Katzenberg preaches using stereoscopic as a way of giving the audience a feeling of being in the scene – as are ALL of the other films he is complaining about. Unless you do the gimmicky thing of making objects seemingly float off of the screen, that illusion of depth is the best you can do with a traditional film. So, I simply think that audiences have realized that the illusion of depth doesn’t really enhance the theatre experience enough for them to keep shelling out the extra dosh. Full stop.
Katzenberg and his company took a risk with Kung Fu Panda 2 and it went down like a sinking ship. 3D isn’t for every single movie under the sun. Movie executives should have learned that by now but nope….they are still releasing shitty movies like Green Lantern and expecting them to be hits. The huge hits that were in 3D have done so because time and care have been taken in the process in coverting 2D to 3D or filming in 3D. The flops were either filmed in 3D(Pirates 4) or converted(Green Lantern). Transfomers 3 was filmed in 3D and has done well and Avatar broke the all time record for domestic gross.
Yes, Pirates is making it’s money overseas but here it’s a not a pretty sight. It won’t make it’s domestic production budget of 250 million here. I am not sure how much it cost to market this movie but Disney is depending on the overseas take to bail them out of this one. It could be worse, Warner Brothers won’t see ANY profit from the 300 million spent on the production and marketing from Green Lantern. It took 200 million to make and another 100 million to market. Not even the overseas gross will bail this movie out. As for Katzenberg, it’s called Cover Your Ass. Plain and simple.
Just so you know, “Pirates 4″ passed the 1 billion dollar mark earlier this month.
Pot, meet Kettle.
As someone pointed out above, Jeffrey was one of the major voices in pushing everyone to embrace 3D. While he is right about how studios have used and abused 3D, he can’t seriously expect us to see him as some sort of visionary who would only use 3D when it was artistically needed. Did Kung Fu Panda really need to be in 3D? Or anything else from Dreamworks Animation for that matter?
I guess his stuff is only done for the sake of art but all the others are only in it for the money. What a joke.
After Transformers 3 I am out.
It’s not about the dim bulb in the projector, the grubby previously used glasses, the nausea inducing transitions, or the inanity of having a spear, bullet, fist, etc… racing “towards” the audience.
It’s about storytelling that resonates and entertains.
2 dimensions are enough if filmmakers accomplish that.
3 dimensions will never compensate if they do not.
No more 3D for me no matter which film or director inflicts it upon the audience. Fuggheddaboudit.
3D is a fad and the real problem is a lot of crappy pictures in the same boring super-hero genre… simple as that Jeffrey.
People seriously believe Katzenberg is being honest? The guy is complaining simply because he isn’t making as much money as he had projected with the 3D craze. He plays a major part in the “greedy” side of business. Another fevered hypocrite…